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Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

MPs lose their life gold travel pass

One of the most generous retirement perks for federal MPs - the life gold travel pass - will be axed immediately.

But the move has been opposed by two long-serving coalition MPs, who objected to its retrospective nature, saying it disadvantaged former politicians who had not been paid as much as those now in parliament.

Queenslanders Ian Macdonald and Warren Entsch were alone in their sentiments, a senior government source said.

Instead, the overwhelming feeling was the life gold pass was so extravagant it was hard to believe it still existed.

Legislation to form an authority to oversee a stricter travel expenses regime will be introduced to parliament this week, with the aim of having it up and running in July.

The gold pass was due to be phased out over six years but the government felt it better to move more swiftly, saving $5 million over the next four years, Special Minister of State Scott Ryan said.

The changes would be the most extensive reforms to parliamentarian work expenses in more than two decades, he said.

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"We have the opportunity and we are seizing it to show Australians the current generation of politicians is determined to subject itself to higher standards than ever before," Senator Ryan told reporters in Canberra.

Former prime ministers will still be offered free travel under the gold pass arrangements as a mark of respect for the office.

But Malcolm Turnbull told coalition MPs on Tuesday he would not take advantage of the offer.

"A lot of Australian families are doing it tough and we have had to make cuts to supplements and to adjust the assets test to help the budget," he told coalition MPs, to applause.

"We're in tough times and we have to lead by example. We have to spend taxpayers' money more frugally than if it were our own."

The government will take police advice about how much information should be disclosed about MP travel arrangements after some politicians raised concerns that publishing too much could compromise their personal safety.

A couple of government MPs asked the new body make clear what spending was controlled by politicians and which expenses - such as the cost of new office fit-outs as dictated by the finance department - were not.